Online betting operator Bet365 has become the first operator to launch Playtech’s new native mobile casino app.
Bet365 has unveiled its new mobile casino app for iOS and Android devices, which the company claims is up to three-times faster and more customizable than Playtech’s previous HTML5 app.
Playtech COO Shimon Akad said research had shown that 89% of mobile time is spent in-app, versus 11% for browsers, “supporting the theory that native apps are what players want to use when gaming.” Akad said operators could drive player values thanks to the app’s “instant and sticky native play functionality.”
In other Bet365 news, the company’s Spanish-licensed site has been hit with a legal complaint from players who claim the operator has unfairly limited their ability to wager via the site or closed their accounts outright based on their ability to beat the bookie at its own game.
The complaint in the Courts of First Instance of Madrid was brought by a group calling themselves mueBETe, representing about 230 bettors. The group launched a website, muebete.org, in May to sign up players who feel victimized by Bet365’s actions.
Lawyer Ricardo Fabrega, who represents the group, says Bet365 isn’t the only Spanish-licensed bookie who engages in these practices, but is being used as a test case that, if successful, will be applied to other bookies in future, including Bwin and William Hill.
Fabrega says mueBETe had raised the issue of “abusive practices” with Spanish regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) but the lack of a desired response left the group with little option but to go to court.
Bet365 has responded by noting that its right to limit or close accounts is fully detailed in its Terms & Conditions and nobody forced any of the aggrieved players to click ‘okay’ when presented with the T&C’s.
The issue of limiting accounts is hardly unique to Spain. This summer, a horserace bettors’ group claimed that UK bookmakers had limited or closed up to 20k accounts of winning bettors. In Australia, a number of states have imposed minimum bet limits on licensed bookmakers.
